This invention relates generally to fittings and, more specifically to fittings for quick release.
Floors and bulkheads define the interior of a commercial airliner. The flight deck, for instance, is defined generally by a floor and a bulkhead separating the flight crew from the main cabin and from the luggage storage area. Likewise, the main cabin of an airliner is separated from the flight deck and from the luggage compartment by a floor and one or more bulkheads.
Because of the rigors of flight, furnishings in the main cabin of a commercial airliner are generally attached either to the floor or one of the bulkheads. Passenger seats, for instance, are fixed to the floor to prevent movement in flight. This fixation occurs by anchoring the seats in configured rows to the floor with a plurality of fasteners.
For younger passengers, airlines will often provide a bassinet. A bassinet is a small rigid mattress suspended from a framework generally by fabric. The framework, in turn, is generally secured to a bulkhead for stability. Because of FAA regulations, a child must be in the arms of an adult rather than in the bassinet during takeoff and landing. For this reason, the bassinet is generally stowed until the airliner reaches its cruising altitude.
At cruising altitude, generally, a flight attendant will anchor the framework of the bassinet to the bulkhead by means of a quick-release fastener. The quick-release fastener facilitates rapid installation and removal of the bassinet as flight conditions allow or demand the same. The most prevalent quick-release fastener used is a pip pin.
The pip pin is a straight pin with locking balls extending from a shaft. Depressing a button located at the opposite end of the shaft retracts the locking balls allowing the pip pin to slide into or out of a receiving sleeve installed in the bulkhead. When the pip pin is slid into the receiving sleeve, the release of the button extends the locking balls into recesses within the bore of the sleeve thereby locking the pin and any load that the pin passes through to the bulkhead. The pin and the load are as easily released from the bulkhead by re-pressing the button thereby retracting the locking balls.
Currently, two major manufacturers supply airlines with bassinets. While these bassinets use pip pins of similar diameters, the distance of the locking balls along the shaft differs from one manufacturer to the other. The use of one manufacturer""s pin in a sleeve designed to receive the other manufacturer""s pin results either in an inability of the locking balls to extend into the recesses of the sleeve thereby allowing the pin to readily slip out of the receiving sleeve or, conversely, the balls may extend too far down the shaft and not give a secure fit resulting in early failure of the pins to secure the load. In either regard, the bassinet and its precious cargo may fall to the floor of the cabin.
Generally, airlines allow manufacturers to install bulkheads in ordered airplanes along with such fittings as the airline deems appropriate. In operation, the airline will supply a bassinet according to the airline""s needs. Because the bassinets are not supplied with the uninstalled sleeves, a likelihood of confusion exists.
There exists, then, an unmet need in the art to provide a receiving sleeve that will securely hold the pip pins provided by both major bassinet manufacturers.
The present invention is a sleeve for receiving a pip pin. The sleeve includes a cylindrical housing. The housing has an axis and defines a bore along the axis. A plurality of spaced-apart annular lands to defined within the bore. Each land is arranged to engage a plurality of locking balls on a shaft of a pip pin to secure the pip pin in the bore.
The present invention allows rapid secure fixation of a load to a bulkhead, without reference to which of two pins will secure the load. The load is securely fixed with either of two pins of appropriate diameter.